Joseph Segel created over 20 businesses over the past 70+ years, including The Franklin Mint, QVC, National Business Services, and the ritzy Le Mirador Resort in Switzerland.
One of the great lessons of his career: “If you want a home run, you have to keep going up to bat!”
Here’s a fantastic spread aimed at high brow collectors and novice bibliophiles alike. [Read more…]
The Little Black Book is one powerful and universal format.
You can deploy it in any market.
This 28-page promo was HOT a few short years ago.
The concept is as appealing as it is simple.
“Forbes Billionaire’s Portfolio helps average investors invest alongside Wall Street billionaires,uncovering the best ideas from the best billionaire investors and hedge funds.” [Read more…]
Here’s a package that brings the teaser copy in spades. [Read more…]
This risk free offer combined with this media works like gangbusters for this advertiser.
You can adopt it to almost any product (pill or potion) in health and beauty,
The success of this lead generation piece is worth testing as long as you can manage to capture the eyeballs of proven buyers in the markets you inhabit… and it brings to mind this quote: [Read more…]
Why is the origin marketing lead one of the most effective leads out there?
It’s simple.
Claims are a dime a dozen but when you wrap them into a story about a mysterious and little known civilization whose people live into their hundreds and enjoy lifelong vigorous health, it’s hard to ignore.
Welcome to Hunza Land! [Read more…]
Here’s a stellar example of subscription (renewal) selling for a newsletter in our current inflationary world.
There are some things our customers and prospects can afford to be without during an economic squeeze.
No matter what you’re selling… [Read more…]
convincing the world… it wasn’t a biz-op.”
Guess I like my Keyser Söze references from time to time.
This is surely one of the greatest secrets for marketing a business opportunity program… to a MUCH wider audience. [Read more…]
I can’t tell you how many green energy, green smoothie, and green glop promos I’ve seen over the decades that miss the mark with the headline.
By the way, nothing against green glop… pass the spinach smoothie. [Read more…]
It’s not enough that the second word in this two-word headline is in CAPS, but it’s also underlined.
It’s hard to pack more punch into a such a compact headline as this.
And there’s no shortage of frustrations in most markets to deploy a similar headline.
It starts with a BIG idea. And speaking of big ideas, you’re likely familiar with this: [Read more…]
A 6-year run for ANY ad is worth taking note of.
But an advertorial like this, for one of those ubiquitous men’s products, demands a deeper look.
We’ve all learned from the great John Caples about the power of the advertorial.
One of his earliest split-run tests, in which one version of an ad was formatted as a traditional ad and the other as an advertorial resulted in the advertorial format getting 81% more orders. [Read more…]
There’s a trove of advertising in the wings from that sometimes forgotten, yet eternally relevant financial advertiser known as Forbes.
Here’s an offer that lasted for years from the charismatic middle generation of the Forbes dynasty, Malcolm Forbes.
Malcolm really knew how to let his hair down after hours and often donned black leather atop his motorcycle, outside the Forbes offices on lower 5th Avenue.
The capable founder’s son, and his dynamic alter-ego, epitomized the brand before he passed the torch on to Steve. [Read more…]
The UK based Writer’s Bureau was the brainchild of Ernest and Susan Metcalfe in the late 1980s. [Read more…]
Some people have their favorite songs, novels, sporting teams and travel destinations.
Others have their favorite direct mail packages.
One of my all-time favorite magalogs in alt-health is still “Killed By Conventional Medicine.” [Read more…]
This Bottomline Personal magalog from a few years back actually arrived without a reply form.
I’m not sure whether this affected just yours truly or was an error across the board. I’m almost certain the reply card did not slip out while in the mail system because the magalog was folded in half, self mailer style.
One can see the imprint of a reply form on page 14, but believe it or not, there is NO way to reply to this hard-hitting, fascination laden promotion, even if one wanted to. [Read more…]
They’re like boiler rooms on paper.
Ostensibly, there’s a newsletter for sale in the penny pushing package, but that’s never the point of these promos.
All of the copy in this 20-page magalog has one purpose — to promote the penny stock for sale in an industry that Buffett is supposedly so captivated by. [Read more…]
This direct mail piece has everything you’d expect for selling a high end, around the world cruise.
The production values, photography, ad copy and offer all come together in this package.
The fares range from $39,999 for an Inside Stateroom to an Owner’s Suite at $124,999 [Read more…]
Inspiration abounds in the world of direct mail marketing…
with things like:
– Bonus overload
– Fascinating “see-page” bullets and…
– Dimensionalizing the value of an offer… so your prospect is eager to buy NOW [Read more…]
Audio-Forum ran this campaign for TWENTY solid years, starting in 1977.
The great Don Hauptman was the genius behind it.
¿See that inverted exclamation point at the beginning of the headline?
Quoting Rodney Dangerfield…
¡That little inverted exclamation mark… doesn’t get any respect!
But it went a LONG ways toward capturing attention and propelling the proof element packed headline.
Long before the Web and the host of competitors came on the scene in the last 20 years, Audio-Forum was IT when it came to language learning in the States.
Brain Kurtz sure came up with a zinger when he decided to swerve into the direct response television FAST LANE in 2008.
The multi-channel success story combined direct mail (which Boardroom and Bottom Line seemed to “corner the market on” at its peak) DRTV, Web and print. [Read more…]
My friend, Craig, ran this ad in the real estate agent magazines for ten long years.
It sucked up leads like crazy.
Why? [Read more…]
This turn of the century control ran as a quarter page insertion for Accelerated Learning Systems.
The copy and offer would make for a solid landing page in the language learning market. [Read more…]
File this one under: “Great leads that rake in response”…
As well as: “The headline they stole from Clayton Makepeace… he stole it too.”
The late, great Clayton Makepeace said of this piece that mailed in the millions for Health Resources:
“Over the years I have watched a particular A-level copywriter make a career out of headlines listing a very low price for a solution to a major problem. I borrowed this idea for a promotion of a client’s Oral Chelation product. [Read more…]
Here’s a great example of marketing success (with our beloved long form copy) for a product from yesteryear.
It’s often challenge selling a seminar from several decades ago… UNLESS it’s got a BIG idea that transcends time… AND you can capture that in the copy.
The Bob Livingston Letter demonstrates that here and the fact that they’ve been selling it for over ten years speaks for itself. [Read more…]
Here’s the sales letter that just mailed with the renewal offer for Second Opinion.
Take your pick: one year at $49 or two years at $89. [Read more…]
I’ve shared quite a few emails over the years with this eternally young beauty brand of one.
Mostly about “Schwartzy,” as she liked to call him… a.k.a. Eugene Schwartz.
Like a lot of overly ambitious entrepreneurs who get into the self-publishing business (the *self-punishing* business is an hysterical typo!) Oleda found herself with a basement full of books nobody wanted to buy! [Read more…]